Engaging God's World Chapter 1

I'm not going to lie, I was not a big fan of this chapter from Plantinga's book called "Engaging God's World," and if this chapter is an indication of what the rest of the book will be like, then I think this will turn out to be a boring read. Despite the fact that a lot of this chapter was boring and not very new to me because I have learned many of these themes in high school and Sunday School lessons, there were a few interesting points that were raised in this chapter.

At the beginning I liked how Plantinga incorporated a quote by C.S. Lewis, and because our class is based on C.S. Lewis and many of his writings, I thought it was very applicable. The part of Lewis's quote that hit me the hardest was when he said, "We are half-hearted creatures... like an ignorant child that wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday atthe sea. We are far too easily pleased." I like this quote a lot because it shows how we would rather be satisfied in our comfort zone and not take chances and see what potential our lives can amount to instead of exploring what else God has for us, even when those things that God has planned for us are so much better than what we are used to at the time. I also liked how Plantinga tied in the of longing here and how we can have a family and good career but still not be happy. It makes me wonder why God made us this way, with a longing for something that many of us will never be able to grasp.

I also liked when Plantinga talked about hope and he stated what Lewis B. Smedes said about it. He said, "...genuine hope always combines imagination, faith, and desire." I then also liked how Plantinga related that defintion of genuine hope to the speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. before the Lincoln Memorial. He said that MLK "incorporated all the ingredients of hope," and I believe that is true. MLK was able to provide hope for many African Americans by making them have faith in him and his movement, and I admire him for his courage and his ingenious use of hope.